Company Launches & Partnerships
Jeff Kirschenbaum has partnered with Joe Roth to form Roth Kirschenbaum Films, a new production company. He was previously the Co-President of Production at Universal where he was at the studio for 15 years.
Google is now under the over-arching company Alphabet in a major reconstruction. As part of the shift, Google Co-Founder Larry Page will be Alphabet’s new CEO, and Sundar Pichai (formerly the SVP of Products for Google) will be the new CEO of Google. Co-Founder of Google, Sergrey Brin has been named the President of Alphabet. Eric Schmidt will be the Executive Chairman of Alphabet. In a letter from Brin, he explained, “Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main internet products contained in Alphabet instead.”
Film
Ryan Brasno is the new SVP of Creative Advertising/Marketing, The Weinstein Company. He was previously the VP of Marketing at The Weinstein Company. Francois Martin has been named the President of Strategic Global Marketing, The Weinstein Company. Francois was upped from EVP of Marketing Operations & TV Sales.
Co-Presidents Jason Janego and Tom Quinn have left Radius-TWC to form a new, as yet untitled company.
James F. Lopez has been named the Head of Motion Pictures at Will Packer Productions. He was previously the SVP of Production at Screen Gems.
Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman’s Brownstone Productions have tapped Alison Small and Renate Radford as SVPs of Film and Television, respectively. Small will head Brownstone’s film unit, which is based at Universal, where Brownstone has a first-look film production deal. Small previously was VP Production at Paramount Pictures and Paramount Insurge. Radford was formerly at Jason Winer’s Small Dog Picture Company at Fox, where she served as Head of Development.
Palak Patel is now the EVP of Production at Columbia Pictures. Palak was previously the President of Production at Roth Films.
Shelly Strong has been upped from SVP to EVP of Physical Production, DreamWorks Studios.
TV
In a major strategic realignment, Discovery Channel chief Rich Ross was just named Group President for channels that will also include Animal Planet and Science Channel. Rita Mullin will still head the Science Channel, but report to Ross, as will Animal Planet GM Rick Holzman. TLC General Manager Nancy Daniels will also run Discovery Life Channel. Howard Lee will be General Manager of Discovery Life, reporting to Daniels. Henry Schleiff will continue to be a Group President and lead Investigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel and Destination America. Discovery Life Channel GM Jane Latman is now the GM of AHC and the SVP Development for ID. Velocity’s Bob Scanlon is now GM of Velocity and Automotive Content. Carolina Lightcap, the head of content for Discovery Latin America and U.S. Hispanic Group, will now lead global family brands and kids content.
Stephanie Swedlove is now the Director of TV at Miramax, upped from a Creative Executive of TV.
Becca Tesarfreund has been upped from Manager to Director of Development at Scripted TV at Entertainment One TV.
Denielle Webb is now the VP of Public Relations and Marketing at SundanceTV. She was previously a Marketing and PR Consultant for AMC.
Global Television and Event production company Done + Dusted has promoted partner, Melanie Fletcher, to Chief Operating Officer. As part of her new position, Fletcher will relocate from the Done and Dusted Group UK hub to its US headquarters in Los Angeles. Fletcher’s new role will include facilitating growth and strategy initiatives, managing all internal and external communications, providing international oversight of productions and developing the new branded content arm, Blue Revolver.
George Chen is now the VP of Strategy & Business Development, ABC Family. He was previously the Director of Business Development. Karissa Zigarovich is now the Director of Consumer Insights at ABC Family. She was formerly the Director of Marketing & Programming Insights at MTV.
Margaret M. Dean is now the General Manager of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. She was previously the Director of Production at Playground Productions.
Ethan Goldman has been promoted from EVP of Development to Partner and Head of Development at Warrior Poets.
OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has upped Jill Dickerson from VP to SVP programming and development. In her new post she will continue to collaborate with producers in the development of nonfiction programming for OWN, as well as supervise editorial management of outside production.
Dave Hamilton is the new EVP of Development at Cineflix Media. He was formerly the SVP of Leopard USA.
Greg Lipstone is now the CEO of All3Media America. He was the Founding Partner and Head of International Television & Media, ICM Partners.
Brenda Lowry is now the VP, Network Program Publicity, Crown Media Family Networks. She was formerly the Director of Communications at SyFy.
Tom Rogan is exiting Authentic Entertainment after 15 years, the reality/documentary production company he co-founded with Lauren Lexton. Lexton has renewed her contract and will remain as CEO.
JP Bommel is now the Managing Director and COO of NATPE//Content First. JP was previously the VP of Business Development, Entertainment at Reed Midem.
Tony Optican is now the Head of Programming at Media General. He was formerly the SVP and Head of Scripted Programming at FremantleMedia North America.
Patrick Reardon has been upped from SVP to EVP of TV at The Weinstein Company.
Lauren Ruggiero is now the Sr. Director of Scripted Development at Spike TV. Lauren was formerly a Production Executive at Elice Island Entertainment.
Jeffrey Schneider is now the EVP of Business & Legal Affairs, National Geographic Channels. He was previously the EVP of Business Affairs and General Counsel, Shine America.
Kay Wilson Stallings has shifted from SVP at Nickelodeon to SVP of Content Development, Sesame Workshop.
Management, PR, Agencies
With the news that Jeff Kwatinetz has brought back the management and production company, The Firm there have been some personnel announcements. Josh Barry will be a Partner of The Firm and Prospect Park. Angelica Cob-Baehler will shift over to The Firm as an Artists Manager. Jeremy Summers is now the General Manager of The Firm.
Kevin McLean is now the Director of Touchwood PR. He was previously the President of District PR. Kara MacLean is now a manager at Touchwood. She was previously a freelance publicist.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Georg Ramme will now be the global managing director for MCN Endemol Beyond and responsible for worldwide strategy, overseeing the growth of the network’s business as a global producer and distributor of digital video and branded content. He will also continue in his role as managing director of Endemol’s German digital hub.
MultiView appointed Yariv Drori as the new VP of Programmatic Advertising Operations. Drori was formerly the VP of Global Services at Adap.tv, which was recently acquired by One by AOL.
Entertainment market research firm Screen Engine/ASI opened two new divisions at the company with new hires. David Gross joined as SVP, overseeing the International Division, and Mark Orne will lead the Digital Entertainment Division as SVP.
The Atlantic has made a pair of additions, naming Ross Andersen senior editor and Catherine Green senior associate editor. Andersen joins from Aeon Magazine, Green from Voice of San Diego.
Beth Braen, SVP of marketing at NATPE, is leaving the organization to start a strategic marketing and communications consultancy.
Yahoo Media has named Martha Nelson as their EIC. Most recently, Nelson was the first female editor-in-chief of Time Inc., where she oversaw the editorial content for the media company’s 21 brands.
Communications planning and media services agency Crossmedia has tapped David Heimlich as Executive Director. Previously he spent four years at Horizon Media, where he most recently was VP, Managing Director.
Melody Hammer is the new VP of Lifestyle, Collective Digital Studio. She was previously the CCO of Seventeen Magazine’s YouTube Channel.
Ken Parks is now the Executive Chairman, Pluto TV. He was previously the CCO of Spotify.
Julie Rapaport is now the Development & Production Executive, Amazon Original Movies. She was previously the SVP of Production & Development, The Weinstein Company.
Univision Communications has tapped Laraine (Rainey) Mancini as SVP, Finance – Head of Investor Relations. Mancini was previously Vice President, Corporate Strategy + Business Development and Vice President, Investor Relations at Time Warner Cable.